From Publishers Weekly
Feisty mother of twins, Ellie Haskell (last seen in The Widows Club ) sets about putting some oomph back into her marriage in this charming and funny modern British mystery. In the village of Chitterton Fells, Ellie and her charwoman, Mrs. Malloy, join Fully Female, an organization whose goal is to "enable every woman to fulfill her physical, emotional and sexual potential." Ellie wants to regain the erotic side of her marriage to super chef Ben, while Mrs. M. hopes to win the attentions of funeral director Walter Fisher. After they join the group, however, the village is shaken by a number of suspicious deaths, beginning with that of a woman who is electrocuted in her bath. Undeterred, Ellie attempts to enliven her marriage by dressing up as a Viking maiden, but before she can enact a fantasy evening with Ben, Jacqueline Diamond calls her to come over, as her husband has fallen to his death in their bedroom. As victims drop, it looks as if love itself can kill. Ellie, though, suspects some calculated human intervention, and sets out--with Mrs. M.'s help--to find the culprit. Cannell's wicked sense of humor and sprightly style move the story briskly to its somewhat contrived conclusion. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
With little twins and a cat hogging most of her time, winsome heroine Ellie Haskell ( Mum's the Word , Bantam, 1990) secretly joins a woman's group designed to rejuvenate relationships. Ellie's breathless fascination with romantic possibilities involving her gorgeous husband provides much of the humor here and lightens the horror of murder and attempted murder that plague the group. Ellie somehow manages to figure out what's happening despite the intervention of a buxom housekeeper, a nutty cousin, a plain-Jane organist, and her husband's good intentions. A pleasant romp.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
Ellie Haskell, the author's anxiety-ridden heroine (The Thin Woman, etc.)--mother of infant twins; wife of handsome restauranteur Ben--is but one of the off-the-wall characters living in the English village of Chittenden Fells. Ellie has joined something called Fully Female, along with her housecleaner Roxie. Its creams and potions, exercise and instruction are designed to revive faltering sexual relationships. Ellie's participation serves to heighten her usual tensions and, after a series of silly plot developments, leads her to attempt the capture of a murderer. Meanwhile, the author works tirelessly at making Ellie charmingly capricious, but what emerges is an amiable flake whose inner dialogue often reads like unfunny stand-up comedy shtick. Over-the-top whimsy--harmless, but no joy. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


From the Publisher
Once Ellie Haskell's life was a fairy tale: the one about the overweight, underpaid interior designer who falls rapturously in love with a gorgeous prince and lives happily ever after. But now, four months after the birth of her twins, her worst nightmare has come true: the princess has turned into a frog and the bliss has gone out of the bedroom.Can a course in the sensual arts, featuring naughty nighties and Peach Melba Love Rub, rekindle the romance she and her adored Bentley once shared? It's a question that leads Ellie straight to an organization called Fully Female.But before she can say "Marriage Makeover," one fellow vamp becomes a sex-crazed zombie and another meets her end in a fatally frothy bubble bath. Then a third victim of amour turns up dead, and Ellie realizes it's more than ill luck. Can Ellie catch a crazed killer before love gets a bad name.


From the Inside Flap
Once Ellie Haskell's life was a fairy tale: the  one about the overweight, underpaid interior  designer who falls rapturously in love with a gorgeous  prince and lives happily ever after. But now, four  months after the birth of her twins, her worst  nightmare has come true: the princess has turned into  a frog and the bliss has gone out of the  bedroom.



Can a course in the sensual arts,  featuring naughty nighties and Peach Melba Love Rub,  rekindle the romance she and her adored Bentley  once shared? It's a question that leads Ellie  straight to an organization called Fully  Female.



But before she can say "Marriage  Makeover," one fellow vamp becomes a sex-crazed  zombie and another meets her end in a fatally frothy  bubble bath. Then a third victim of amour turns up  dead, and Ellie realizes it's more than ill luck.  Can Ellie catch a crazed killer before love gets a  bad name.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Once Ellie Haskell's life was a fairy tale: the one about the overweight, underpaid interior designer who falls rapturously in love with a gorgeous prince, has two adorable children, and lives happily ever after. But now, four and a half months after the birth of her twins, Ellie's worst nightmare has come true: The princess has turned into a frog, and the bliss has gone out of the bedroom. Still, Ellie wonders if the answer to her marital woes can be found in an organization called Fully Female. Can a course in the sensual arts, featuring naughty nighties and Peach Melba Love Rub, really rekindle the magic she and her adored Bentley once shared? Somehow Ellie thinks not...until her faithful housekeeper, suicidal and lovesick, arrives brandishing a gun, and Ellie realizes that Fate is summoning them both to Fully Female. There, in a brightly lit studio run by an ex-chorus girl who promises to turn hausfraus into vamps and girlfriends into wives, Ellie sees some surprisingly familiar faces. Even the stylish Jacqueline Diamond, wife of famed children's television personality Norman the Doorman, is lining up to shake and shimmy her way through Working Women Workouts and divulge all at the Marriage Makeover sessions. But when Ellie's daily is suddenly reduced to a sex-crazed zombie and one would-be siren meets her end in a fatally frothy bubble bath, our heroine begins to suspect that there are dangers in becoming The Woman He Always Wanted. And then another hapless victim of amour turns up dead, and Ellie realizes that more than ill luck is involved. Now she must cook up a scheme to catch a crazed killer...before love gets a bad name.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Feisty mother of twins, Ellie Haskell (last seen in The Widows Club ) sets about putting some oomph back into her marriage in this charming and funny modern British mystery. In the village of Chitterton Fells, Ellie and her charwoman, Mrs. Malloy, join Fully Female, an organization whose goal is to ``enable every woman to fulfill her physical, emotional and sexual potential.'' Ellie wants to regain the erotic side of her marriage to super chef Ben, while Mrs. M. hopes to win the attentions of funeral director Walter Fisher. After they join the group, however, the village is shaken by a number of suspicious deaths, beginning with that of a woman who is electrocuted in her bath. Undeterred, Ellie attempts to enliven her marriage by dressing up as a Viking maiden, but before she can enact a fantasy evening with Ben, Jacqueline Diamond calls her to come over, as her husband has fallen to his death in their bedroom. As victims drop, it looks as if love itself can kill. Ellie, though, suspects some calculated human intervention, and sets out--with Mrs. M.'s help--to find the culprit. Cannell's wicked sense of humor and sprightly style move the story briskly to its somewhat contrived conclusion. (Sept.)

Library Journal

With little twins and a cat hogging most of her time, winsome heroine Ellie Haskell ( Mum's the Word , Bantam, 1990) secretly joins a woman's group designed to rejuvenate relationships. Ellie's breathless fascination with romantic possibilities involving her gorgeous husband provides much of the humor here and lightens the horror of murder and attempted murder that plague the group. Ellie somehow manages to figure out what's happening despite the intervention of a buxom housekeeper, a nutty cousin, a plain-Jane organist, and her husband's good intentions. A pleasant romp.

BookList - Mary Carroll

Ellie Haskell, the fat woman from "The Thin Woman" (St. Martin's, 1984), has slimmed down, but she remains a charming, well-meaning bundle of insecurities who stumbles into criminous situations through kindness or curiosity, and escapes with her life through pure dumb luck. Ellie understands people well enough to come up with lists of suspects and motives; the identity of the miscreant, however, often surprises her as much as it surprises the reader. In "Femmes Fatal", Ellie fears that her marriage to gorgeous chef-restauranteur Bentley T. has lost its passion since the birth of the twins, so she goes along when the other women in Chitterton Fells join Fully Female--"to put the lust back in love." Bunty Wiseman, an ex-chorus girl turned lawyer's wife, has the village knickers in an uproar with aerobics, support groups, proprietary products, and advice to the lustlorn. But people begin to die, and Ellie has to puzzle it all out. Think of it this way: an author who opens her novel with "He was a dark and stormy knight"--and a few pages later has her heroine remark, "Damn, life is a sexist institution"--deserves further exploration. Fans may not quite know how to pronounce Cannell's latest, but they "will" find a way to request it.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Dorothy Cannell has perfected the recipe for an outrageous of genteel wit and wicked satire...I giggled to the end of this intricate plot of love-starved ladies, exhausted husbands, and discretely kinky murder. — Joan Hess